Dino Crisis 3
Dino Crisis 3 is an action-adventure game released exclusively for the Xbox. It is the fourth game in release order, and the final console game in the series. Like the previous iterations of the Dino Crisis series, gameplay revolves around fighting dinosaurs. The action takes place in outer space, on a starship, the Ozymandias. Unlike the first three installments of the Dino Crisis series, the enemies in the game are not real-world dinosaurs, but new species created through advanced genetic engineering technology. Despite the series being ranked the #7 best-selling Capcom franchise in 2010, Capcom's "VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development", Christian Svennson, commented "Dino Crisis 3... went off the rails, if I recall", but noted that "Dino Crisis comes up from time to time development meetings", though there wasn't "any burning desire from R&D or the business side to light that franchise back up again", citing the out-dated pre-rendered nature of the first two entries in the series. Plot It is the year 2548, more than 300 years since Earth lost contact with the colony ship Ozymandias, en route to the distant planet, α2. Unexpectedly, the ship has reappeared in orbit over Jupiter. Earth sends the probe ship Seyfert to investigate, and it launches a shuttle carrying highly trained Special Operations And Reconnaissance (S.O.A.R.) operators to board the ship. Ozymandias then fires upon Seyfert, destroying it, before turning on the shuttle. Four survivors make their way onboard Ozymandias: Patrick Tyler, Sonya Hart, McCoy, and their CO, Jacob Ranshaw. They must wait at least three days after they are declared over-due before they can expect a rescue party. Tyler, Hart and McCoy find themselves in the ship's hangar deck, where McCoy is killed by a Tyrannosaurus-like creature, Australis, which is in turn killed by a pack of the eel-like Rigel, which eat it alive. Tyler and Hart are separated by the antics of the computer system, MTHR-248, though this allows Tyler to find Ranshaw. Debris from Seyfert destroys a window and the two men are almost sucked out into space, but Hart is able to force the emergency shutters down. The three continue their investigation, where they discover the original crew perished in 2248 from radiation poisoning, with the ship's CO Captain Satoko Evans ordering MTHR-248 to create clones of them in the ship's DNA Laboratory to save the mission, but for as yet unexplained reasons switched to creating genetically-altered dinosaurs. However, the S.O.A.R. members have not seen any humans yet. When an unidentified life reading is registered in the Storage Sector, Tyler heads out to investigate, soon running into a young woman, Caren. MTHR-248 tries to keep the two separate, going as far as to destroy the Storage Sector itself, but Tyler continues on. Tyler tracks Caren down to her father's quarters, discovering she is the daughter of noted cyberneticist Dr. Miguel Angel Velasquez de Silva, apparently surviving for three hundred years in a cryo chamber. Caren leaves Tyler behind, and he tracks her down once more to a Hologram Room displaying a recreation of the solar system. Caren has been warned by MTHR-248 not to trust Tyler as he is dangerous, something he confirms in his plans to shut down the computer system. Tyler is able to get her to see how MTHR-248's rampant behaviour is the true danger, and the computer responds by unleashing a surge of electricity in the room. When Hart heads out of the ship to save Tyler and Caren, she discovers an escape shuttle on the aft section of the ship, which the group can use to leave immediately rather than wait for rescue. Hart and Ranshaw head over to the Shaft Sector to meet with Tyler, who begins his search of the DNA Laboratory. Tyler is attacked by a newly-born dinosaur, Regulus, which sets the room ablaze. Hart and Ranshaw's rescue goes awry when Caren gets involved, and is seriously injured. Ranshaw also suffers injuries, and kills himself with a grenade in an attempt to take Regulus with him. Outside of the DNA Laboratory, Caren dies and her skin turns to dust, revealing she was in fact one of Dr. Velasquez's androids the entire time. After killing Regulus in a second fight, Tyler is shocked to find Caren once more greeting him, the new android having not only downloaded all the memories of the first, but unaware of her true nature. Closing in on the escape shuttle, MTHR-248 causes problems to Ozymandias Third Energy core, requiring Tyler to traverse the Shaft Sector once more, but in 0G, and through the Deck Sector as it begins to freeze due to a malfunctioning environment system. Tyler obtains the required Atomic Cylinder required to reactivating the core, almost being killed by a large foot crashing through the ceiling in the search. As the doors freeze over, Tyler is left trapped in the Hangar Deck, watched by MTHR-248, who sends an Australis after him. Realising he is in danger of dying in the cold, Caren uses her familiarity with the ship to thaw the section out. Tyler is able to insert the Atomic Cylinder into the Third Energy core, but another accident happens, this time risking the destruction of the ship. To make matters worse, an aquatic dinosaur - Miaplacidus - makes its entrance, but is soon forced to flee. Tyler, Hart and Caren reach the MTHR Sector as the aft section of the ship detaches itself from the rest, escaping the explosion and activating its Warp drive to take it straight to Earth orbit. Tyler heads up to the MTHR Room to shut down the computer system once and for all, and finally discovers the missing elements of the puzzle. The mutant dinosaurs were side-products in MTHR-248's research in creating a perfect human-dinosaur hybrid which could survive in any environment, existing to test out genes that would go into the hybrids. A dozen cloned foetuses have been created, ready to be sent to Earth, and each paired with its respective android to look after it. Miaplacidus, having escaped to the aft section before the ship's destruction, floods the room and fights Tyler once more, finally being killed. MTHR-248 itself is damaged beyond repair and shuts down. Hart and Caren regroup with Tyler as the ships's self-destruct system sounds. As they leave the room, Caren spots the androids and realises her true nature. Heading for the escape shuttle in the Engine Sector, the three are confronted by MTHR-248's most dangerous dinosaur, the two-headed Cebalrai, the adult form of Rigel capable of surviving in vacuum. Caren lures the creature to the side of a deep shaft, sending it and herself falling to the bottom, with Caren declaring she never belonged on Earth due to not being human. Tyler and Hart make it to the escape shuttle and launch, but are attacked once more by Cebalrai, which made its way out into space and landed on the shuttle. With the assistance of the Final Wasp, Tyler is able to throw Cebalrai off the shuttle, letting the creature spend its days floating aimlessly in space. Gameplay The number of weapons was reduced to 2 guns with 6 ammo types (one gun and 3 ammo types per playable character), in addition to small machines called "WASPS" that help against dinosaur encounters. The game was played mostly through the character Patrick and only a small section was played as Sonya (although an unlockable mode allows you to play as Sonya only faster wearing a Waitress costume). There are also three types of body armor available. Development Dino Crisis 3 entered production in mid-2000, led by Hiroyuki Kobayashi as Producer and Shinji Mikami as Executive Producer for Capcom Production Studio 4. The game was devised as an exclusive for the Xbox to boost sales for the emerging console in Japan, with Kobayashi later stating that its graphical rendering abilities made it the better choice than the PlayStation 2. Prior to the arrival of Higuchi and Kamiya, Dino Crisis 3 had been conceptualised as a "human drama" set within an unspecified facility in a city under siege from rampaging time-displayed dinosaurs, with the player and AI partners working together to fight them in ways that could change the outcome of the plot.X-Box 2001 conference summary (Japanese). This proposed game was never made, owing to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, which made Capcom concerned about how a destroyed city environment would be seen by players. A space-ship setting was instead devised, with Dino Crisis 2 writer Noboru Sugimura hired to create the script, which was complete before Higuchi and Kamiya's attachment to the project. Seeking a style comparable to Japanese science fiction cinema, Kobayashi sought after a storyboardist and cutscene director from the film industry. His first pick was Shinji Higuchi, but due to scheduling conflicts worked with Makoto Kamiya, taking up storyboarding and cinematic directing, respectively.Premium Fact File interview. Programming The game's HUD went through considerable development in 2002. Originally the HUD was to be positioned on the bottom-left corner of the screen, and show health and jetpack fuel stats as lines, as well as the number of WASPs available to the player.IGN - "XBOX CONFERENCE SUMMER '02". The weapons system itself was different from earlier games; players would rely on a main weapon with infinite ammunition, with the option to switch to other forms of ammunition for stronger opponents which would be limited and have to be found or bought. The WASPs were designed as a secondary weapon which would fly around the map and provide additional aid to the player during combat. Like in Dino Crisis 2, more focus is given to giving players the fun of shooting dinosaurs than item conservation and avoiding them like in Dino Crisis. A shop feature was created for the game where, like in Dino Crisis 2 the player could purchase supplies based on points accumulated from killing dinosaurs. However, in this game the player could accumulate a finite number, requiring them to return to the shop frequently or they would receive no further points. In developing the camera, the team decided to take full advantage of the Xbox's power and make it 3D rather than using 2D pre-rendered backgrounds like Dino Crisis 2 had done. In a similar manner to Studio 1's contemporaneous Resident Evil Outbreak, rooms were divided into zones where a camera would follow the player, then cut to another camera when they leave the area. Character designs Character design was handled by Futoshi Nagata for the concept art phase, and by a team on the CG art phase. Characters were designed based on Japanese science fiction tropes, special attention given to the SOAR uniforms, with Higuchi storyboarding how parts of the suit would move. Caren, as a non-SOAR character, was given a design inspired by Japanese "race queen" idols, models who attend rallies. She is known to have gone through clothing changes, with her purple tights removed following criticism by Executive Producer Mikami.PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.48. Creature The creatures that populate the Ozymandias ''are revealed in the story to be genetically-engineered human-dinosaur hybrids. As such the creature designers were free to create the creatures how they wanted; this was liberating for the designers, as the ''Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 teams had problems with making the Therapods unique. A common theme in the dinosaurs was that they would have exposed skin and could release electricity as a form of attack.DINO CRISIS 3 PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.UNKNOWN. The Cebalrai final boss was a late addition to the game, and was the brainchild of CG director Makoto Kamiya.PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.47.Excerpt from PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.47: "双頭の恐竜！？”ゲバルライ”の頭が互いに相談。 樋口氏の絵コンテにもなかった。 神谷氏オリジナルのアイデアも随所に盛り込まれている。" Due to this fascination with mecha, 3CGI paid particular attention to making the cutscenes of Ozymandias transformation seem more realistic, with moving parts being locked in place. Environment The Ozymandias design changed over the course of production. Until mid-2002, the exact designs of rooms were liable to change for reasons from how good they would look in cutscenes, to tailoring motion capture to the area.DINO CRISIS 3 PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.43. According to Kobayashi, radical changes were made sometime in early 2002, and by the time the storyboarding process began the ship's interior was radically different to what had previously been conceived, and the planned size of the exterior shots was increased. Storyboard editor Shinji Higuchi himself caused some alterations when he offered the idea that the ship would be capable of transforming. A long-time fan of mecha, Higuchi got the idea from the 1984 film, "Sayonara Jupiter!", which he worked on. This film also involved a transforming space ship over Jupiter. A rough idea of the ship's sector layout and transformation make-up was decided by Xbox Conference 2002, wherein Kobayashi introduced the sci-fi concept. Story development An early story proposal centred on the emergence of dinosaurs in the present day world in a city,PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.44. possibly the very time distortion Dino Crisis 2 alluded to with the Noah's Ark Plan. A single image hinting to this storyline was shown by Yoshiki Okamoto when he announced three Capcom games at the May 16 Xbox announcement for E3 2001. After the September 11 attacks, Kobayashi moved the project away from the city proposal and to something else. With offers from the Flagship team, led by Noboru Sugimura, Hiromichi Nakamoto, Shin Yoshida and Hiroaki Kanazawa, it was agreed the game story be shifted to a futuristic environment in space which would allow for new ideas. The scenario was finished some-time before March 2002, wherein Kobayashi ordered the storyboarding process to begin. Cutscenes Storyboards were handled by Shinji Higuchi, who was also involved with the ship designs. Higuchi was a well-known Japanese special effects director and was associated with the sci-fi and kaiju genres. They had in fact wanted him to handle the entire CG movie process, but he was double-booked, also doing the CG film, Minimoni ja Movie: Okashi na Daibōken! (ミニモニ。じゃ ムービー お菓子な大冒険!). When asked by Kobayashi who would make a good director, he suggested hiring Makoto Kamiya.PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.42. Higuchi produced the storyboard designs between March and May 2002.Excerpt from PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.43: "Kamiya: "去年の３〜４月ごろでしょうか。 絵コンテの最終稿が、 その年の５月です。"" Higuchi later regretted no putting more action into the storyboards, which would have resulted in more action-intense cutscenes. Kamiya's directing of the CG movie had initial problems owing to the storyboards and ship maps provided to him. Kamiya found the sketches to be too vague; as the room designs involved raised levels, he felt 2D sketches were not sufficient in telling him where things were in a room. According to Kobayashi, some room designs had not been finished when the storyboarding process had begun, and some were changed to conform to the needs of the motion capture. As Higuchi neglected to sufficiently storyboard the Ozymandias transforming process, Kamiya was left to plan out from scratch. To make the sequences seem more realistic, the ship's external shots included locking mechanisms. By the end of CG production, some 54 minutes of pre-rendered sequences had been produced.PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.UNKNOWN. When it came to motion capture, it was decided that capturing and photographing actors in dinosaur costumes would not be as effective in a game as in Kaiju films. Kamiya's team gave Caren's motion capture actor freedom in portraying Caren to give a more realistic style for the character who, unlike the others, is not a soldier. For the cutscenes, Kobayashi ruled against blatant sexualisation of the character, and ruled that there be no breast jiggling or upskirt shots.PREMIUM FACT FILE, p.48 excerpt:'' "あと、 一応パンチラさせていません。 胸揺らしもありません。 そこは私が「揺らさないで、 見せないで」 とお願いしました。 いい意味で人気が出るといいですね。" Marketing 'Dino Crisis 3' was officially announced at Microsoft's Summer 2001 conference, but little was shown other than a single piece of concept art and talk of partner AIs helping in combat. The game was fleshed out the following June at the 2002 Xbox Conference. There, Executive Producer Shinji Mikami introduced the game's premise, and described the setting as a colony ship in space and how stages could be refreshed and re-explored by changing the ship's layout. The game having entirely new characters was also brought up, and Mikami teased the jetpack though only said it was something worn on the player's back. At the time, he stated the game was approximately 50-60% completion.Famitsu - 【Xbox Conference 2002 Summerリポート】『真･女神転生NINE』や『ディノ クライシス3』などXbox向け注目タイトルも大挙発表！ At the following Autumn event held in December, it was confirmed the game would be an exclusive title for the Xbox console. 2003 On April 17, 2003, Microsoft announced their intention to release a special edition Xbox console with a DVD playback kit included. The edition was dubbed the "DINO CRISIS 3 Limited Box", and came with a 26,800円 price tag. Pre-orderers were to be rewarded with the ''DINO CRISIS 3 PREMIUM FACT FILE book. The game was delayed in Japan, however, and was moved a week to September 16. Plot points were gradually released in the last two months ahead of release. On April 28, Sonya Hart's playability was confirmed by Famitsu. Soon after in the beginning of May, the game's official Japanese website was updated soon after to introduce the seventeen year old "Caren", as well as Sonya. At the May 2003 Capcom conference, Hiroyuki Kobayashi presented Dino Crisis 3 and described development as revolving around three key phrases: "speed feeling"; "scale feeling", and "solid feeling". This, he meant, was the high-speed movements of the jetpack; the 3D platforming experience of jumping across rooms, and the skin texture of the dinosaurs. Reception |EuroG = 3/10 }} Dino Crisis 3 was projected to sell some 580,000 copies by the end of the 2003 financial year, with 60,000, 220,000 and 300,000 copies projected in Japan, Europe and the United States, respectively.Capcom 2003 presentation manual. Capcom's annual report released in 2004 reported "sluggish" growth of the game, which may indicate it failed to reach its half-million goal.2003 Financial Year report. Dino Crisis 3 received rather mixed reviews from its reviewers. IGN gave the game a 6.0, describing it as a missed-opportunity to advance the series, having been betrayed by minor, but repetitive faults. GameSpot branded the game with a "Mediocre" 5.4, having found the game more "frustrating than ... fun" due to its flaws, though finding the game to be enjoyable if ignored. The most common criticism was the camera system, which was named by IGN as "The Worst Camera Ever". The problem was due to the high speeds that the player can frequently travel at. As with the first two Dino Crisis titles and the early elements of the Resident Evil series, rooms in Dino Crisis 3 are divided into separate, invisible zones where the camera is set to change once the boundary is crossed. Because of the fast-moving jetpack, players would travel between those boundaries rapidly, with multiple camera changes leading to confusion as to where the player is supposed to be going, resulting in them inadvertently turning back. Because of the large size of zones and the long-range auto-aim system, IGN expected that players would spend 80% of their game to be firing at enemies that are out of their view and dodging attacks from off-screen. GameSpot suggested that the game would be a lot more playable had the player been given the opportunity to, at the very least, move the angle of the camera. IGN was supportive of Capcom's decision to turn the Ozymandias into a giant puzzle, with the ship being able to routinely change formation. This puzzle method was compared to a jigsaw. There was some disappointment regarding the variety of the enemies: IGN counted only three non-boss enemies present in the game (Rigel; Algol and Kornephoros, excluding the camouflaging variant of Algol), though they did admire their unique designs, particularly for the Kornephoros. There was more support for the boss enemies, though, with IGN citing the key to victory being to avoid attacks rather than to simply shoot. IGN also admired the uniqueness of the 50+ rooms within the Ozymandias, but questioned the decision to avoid such environments as a cafeteria or a mess hall, which would have made the ship feel more like it actually had a crew to begin with. GameSpot saw little 'uniqueness' in the designs, noting the same shiny metallic look of the ship's interiors being everywhere and, without using the 3D map feature, it would be hard to get lost when moving around (partly because of the camera system). The voice acting was thought to be of reasonable quality, which IGN felt to be 'surprising' for a Japanese game using English-speaking actors. They did note down the presence of "corny" dialogue, though. GameSpot considered it to be a "passable" B-grade, in comparison. Other aspects of the sound design, such as the score and sound effects, were also found to be good or "passable"; they were criticised for being limited and repetitive in rooms, however. Sources ;excerpts ;references }} External links *website (Japan) *Official website (US) *Official website (UK) es:Dino Crisis 3 Category:Games Category:Dino Crisis 3